Robert Strong was out nearly two years awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in May 2023.
An admitted Atlantic County drug-trafficker freed pending sentencing is back in jail after allegedly being found with drugs and a stolen gun.
Robert Strong, who turned 34th the day before his detention hearing Wednesday, was released from jail May 25, 2023, pending sentencing in a 2021 drug-trafficking ring.
He remained free nearly two years, until a no-knock search warrant brought police to a home on Riverside Drive in Atlantic City’s Venice Park, according to the affidavit of probable cause obtained by BreakingAC.
N.J. State Police and other law enforcement officers found heroin packaged for sale, along with a stolen Glock 9mm firearm with a high-capacity magazine, 11 hollow-point bullets, suspected heroin packaged for sale and $9,516 in cash, according to the charges.
Strong’s attorney claimed his client did not live in the Atlantic City home, and that he works full-time as a landscaper, with this being his busy season.
He said Strong instead lives at the Mays Landing address listed as part of his monitoring.
Assistant Prosecutor Deirdre Laws argued that Strong showed he could not abide by the court rules, since he already faces a 15-year sentence under his previous plea agreement. That carried a mandatory minimum of 7½ years of parole ineligibility.
At the time of his plea, he was listed as living in Egg Harbor City.
Public defender Stephen Funk also argued that Strong would not be a flight risk, since he has strong ties to the area, including his daughter who turns 6 on May 3.
But Judge William Miller said Strong is a risk to the community.
“How would he like it if someone like himself were selling heroin and meth or crack cocaine to his 6-year-old daughter when she turns 12 or 13 or 14?” he asked.
He also gave other potential scenarios, including a shooting that could injury a child.
“These distributors are callous. They don’t care what happens to the people,” Miller said. “And it’s not one other person, it is multiple people. One drug dealer could sell to 10, 20, 30, 50 people.”
Funk took issue with the judge’s take, saying none of that was part of the facts of the case.
Miller countered that he was quoting from the statute, that recognizes “this is what drug distribution does. It contributes to guns. It contributes to overdoses. It contributes to violence in the community.”
“It’s to prevent that type of harm, that’s why he’s being detained,” he added.
The judge also revoked Strong’s release on the drug-trafficking case.
